Jenny Bale, 61, told the Telegraph that she understood Bale's anger at the time but that the foul-mouthed tirade at cinematographer Shane Hurlbut on the set of the new Terminator film was "upsetting" for her to hear. The outburst has spread rapidly across the web after an audio recording was leaked onto the internet, even being reworked into a dance hit which has become popular on YouTube.

Speaking from her home in Bournemouth, Dorset, Mrs Bale said: "I haven't spoken to Christian about it, but I have listened to most of it and he was clearly very angry. He is a perfectionist and if you are doing an intense scene and someone is spoiling a shot, it takes time to get it back.

"It sounds as if a lighting engineer got in the shot so I can understand his anger but not the length of the tirade.

"It happened in July when he was filming the Terminator and was before the incident with him and myself at the Batman premiere with all the publicity.

"People might now realise that that is his temper, they might understand a bit more. I wish he hadn't carried this on so long or so fiercely, it was upsetting to hear him."

Meanwhile Terminator Salvation's assistant director, Bruce Franklin, yesterday defended Bale, suggesting the actor's reaction after Hurlbut walked into the middle of a scene to check on the lights was not indicative of the star's usual onset persona.

"It was the most emotional scene in the movie," said Franklin. "And for him to get stopped in the middle of it ... he is very intensely involved in his character. He didn't walk around like that all day long. It was just a moment and it passed."

Bale's parents separated when he was 13, with the young actor joining his father in America four years later, while his mother and two sisters remained in the UK. Jenny Bale now works as a therapist and lives in Bournemouth.